Undisputed kings of the clamshell box set Cherry Red have put together the ultimate CD clam shell box of Dinosaur Jr from 1990-97 or the hits years when they were signed to Sire. On the four CDs, you get all four albums plus a plethora of B-sides and more. Albums, Singles, and rarities are pretty much the Jewson lot.

The booklet has a heap of awesome artwork to accompany the releases as well as extensive sleevenotes from Mojo Magazines Keith Cameron based on his interviews with J Mascis.

Born in the mid-80s post-punk and pre-Grungers Dinosaur Jr was the brainchild of Mascis and his unique guitar style. To be fair the run of sire records are an amazing body of work and a commercial success to boot. ‘Green Mind’ with its cool cover was intriguing at the time (pre-internet) but as soon as the needle dropped it was a sonic scalping. Songs like ‘The Wagon’ and ‘Whatevers Cool With Me’ were and still are fantastic songs.

To follow it up a year later with ‘Where You Been’ with its lead track ‘Start Choppin’ was nothing short of brilliant and deserved its commercial success proving that ‘Green Mind’ wasn’t a one-off or flash in the pan. The beauty here is pulling in all the bonus material onto one disc with its corresponding album with ‘Missing Link’ ending disc two which was the pick of the soundtrack ‘Judgement Night’ which pulled together some amazing collaborations.

Continuing the upward trajectory ‘Without A Sound’ and ‘Hand It Over’ wrapped up a real golden period for the band. They might not have reached the dizzy heights of the first two in the set but I’ve always loved ‘Feel The Pain’ and it still sounds amazing all these years later but again its the bonus tracks that are the main draw here Instrumentals, Acoustic live tracks all filling out this set.

With almost 80 tracks this is a superb box set that’s a fantastic in for new fans or people too young first time around and a great accompaniment for the vinyl reissues that broke the band when they came out a few years ago.

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Author: Dom Daley